2016-04-27 Wednesday - A High-Level Design (HLD) Template

https://github.com/intltechventures/Consulting.Project.Tools/blob/master/templates/HighLevelDesign.md

Rationale: Numerous times, in my travels as a consultant, I've encountered organizations in which there is no established standard/template for what should be included in an HLD. Quite often (even in organizations that ostensibly have a template), the artifacts that architects and engineers produce devolve into a wild-wild west of anything-goes. Consistency engenders repeat-ability - a worthy goal. And therefore, the intended purpose in sharing this...at least as a starting point for further customization.

The goal of an HLD is to enable communication and coordination, both within teams and organizations - as well as serving as a tool for communication and coordination with external partners.

The HLD provides a consistent format for teams to assemble details - which support a goal of being able to reuse design artifacts - and is intended to provide sufficient information to Program/Project Management to be able to plan and coordinate large-scale development efforts. Additionally, an HLD serves as an effective mechanism to support Design Review and Architecture Governance efforts.
The target level of detail is to scope the effort, provide sufficient input to the estimation process, and to clearly articulate the How of an approach.

Investing effort in the creation of the HLD is intended for larger-scoped tasks - that have some non-trivial number of unknowns, technical complexity, a high number of coordination points, or any external integration/coordination requirements.